Random childhood stuff you have no explanation for.

Does anyone remember the Garbage Pail Kids stickers?

Where did quicksand come from? Where did it go? Why were we all so afraid of it? I thought I’d spend so much more of my adult life avoiding it.

One of the famous punks, a young woman with a stiff, tall, bleached Mohican, who featured on London postcards, went to my school! She was a few years above me.

There was another cinnamon flavoured chewing gum that I only ever saw in a tiny newsagent in Bristol, next to the cinema. My friend and I would buy some then go to the cinema, the flavour would last all the way through the film. It was fab.

the chewing gum was cinnamon flavoured Dentyne- loved it and it kept it's flavour for hours!

Did you play 'Punch Wagon'?

If you saw a VW beetle or a VW camper van you shouted 'Punch Wagon' and hit who ever else was on the backseat with you.

Only the first person to see the VW could do the punching.

Does anyone else remember the germolene flavored chewing gum ?

Did anyone else lie down and pit their arm straight up ( towards the ceiling) and see how long you could keep it there ?

Yes I have a photo of me when I was about 6 with a monkey dressed up. I was devastated I couldn't keep it. It was definitely a thing. This was in London.

Years ago, Germolene was pink and quite oily. I miss that smell. It came in a round tin, so absolutely no waste.

Do you remember the stickers that oil, petrol and car companies gave out? Petrol stations usually had some to give away.

Yes! One particular promotion was for endangered animals. We got every single sticker on the card, except for Przewalski’s Horse, I recall. Loads of doubles for all the stickers but the horse evaded us right to the end of the run.

Nowadays you’d be able to bid for it at an extortionate rate on eBay but in the 70s/80s you just had to live with the abject failure!

Our primary school used to put pink ointment on any cuts and grazes that had a very distinctive smell. Not sure what it was , but might have been germoline?
They also had plasters that would survive the apocalypse and left a very sticky mark on your skin once you did manage to get them off! Not like today’s weak plasters.

I loved them books but had forgotten all about them , you have unlocked a memory for me .🧡

Did anyone else have luminescent stars on their ceiling?
I bought loads and got my dad to stick them up for me , except when they were up there wasn't nearly as good looking as I thought it'd be.

If you bumped your head at 'our' primary school, the dinner lady would give you a bit of cotton wool with witch hazel on it. I bet the smell of that would take me back. One of them would play a skipping and singing game with us sometimes, There came a Duke a-riding.

The grass verges near me are usually dusty dirty and some don’t pick up after their dog , so avoiding them makes sense! The council cut them back and leave the bits everywhere as well.

Hah, with my mother it was specifically grass in autumn when it was covered with leaves. I would want to go kicking them about and she would say "Come off there. It'll be full of dogs' mess". She was usually right. 😊

I remember playing " cats cradle" with elastics and " jacks" ( was brilliant at that)

No smoking areas and smoking areas inside a restaurant. Seems obvious that wouldn't really work.

I used to get ear infections a lot as a child and lie on my side, bad ear up with cotton wool in to keep the ear drops in/make them drip down into my ear via gravity. So that probably was the advice my parents were given but I didn't walk around with cotton wool in my ears at school 🤣 they have sprays now which squirt deep into the ear so a cotton wool plug isn't needed.

My Grandma would never let me kick or even walk through autumn leaves for the same reason 😂

There was a rumour that if you wore shoes without socks, you might find that your toes had disappeared when you took the shoes off. When I wore my trainers without socks in the summer, or when we walked from the classroom to the hall for PE in shoes without socks as we were made to, I was always wiggling my toes to check they were still there!

Or as Brick Heck would say, A SWIRLIE.

Yes. In. Northern Ireland, my great grandmother had one at the end of her garden along with a metal bin.

As children (and actually still now) me and my sister, whenever we saw a monkey puzzle tree would try to be the first to nip the other whilst saying “monkey puzzle tree nip for luck” no idea if it was a thing or not but it was for us in the 80s/90s

Thanks @scaltand @SomeoneIsWrongOnTheInternet A 35 year old mystery is finally solved! 😂

Oh you’ve reminded me of another one - I wasn’t allowed to walk on grass verges because my mum was convinced it was all full of dog poo that was hidden by the grass (because of the random dogs). I still struggle with letting my own kids go on grass. 😅